The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
When people think about running a restaurant they think about the financial gain and not all of the work that needs to be done in order to make it happen, but when you look at some statistics about the restaurant industry, it’s easy to see why it happens. According to the National Restaurant Association, the restaurant industry is projected to bring in $660.5 billion in revenue in 2013. The food service industry is one of the few industries that have grown over the past few years, and there are 13.1 million employees in the industry.
A lot of work needs to go into running a successful restaurant. You need to have someone checking and updating your inventory, managing your employees, and someone overseeing all of the work in the kitchen. If you’re thinking of opening a restaurant, or if you have recently opened one and are having a little trouble getting off your feet, keep these essential restaurant management tips in mind.
There is nothing worse than running out of an essential ingredient for a dish and throwing away pounds of food that you can’t use because you purchased too much of it, which wastes your money and your time. You should be keeping track of your food sales and usage closely, and try to see if you can work out at least two deliveries a week with your food supplier. When the time comes to make your order, only order what you think you are going to sell in the next three to four days. If you are good at determining what you will need, you’ll be able to avoid having to throw away meat, produce, and other fresh ingredients that can spoil quickly.
Utilize Containers
When you are running a restaurant, packagingto-go containers can be your best friend when it comes to organization. Your kitchen and storerooms need to be as functional and spacious as possible. Keeping everything in large boxes almost guarantees that you are going to lose something important. When you use bulk packages, use your food scale to divide everything up into easy-to-use single servings. Dividing everything up ahead of time will make it easier for your cooks to get dishes out as fast as possible and it’ll help things run more efficiently.
Use Commercial Equipment
A lot of people who are new in the restaurant business try to save money by using appliances that are made for home-use instead of commercial-use. It’s understandable that you want to save money, but skimping on your equipment will only backfire on you. Even some of the best made domestic appliances can’t keep up with the demands of a commercial kitchen, and eventually your “cheaper” equipment will break down and you’ll have to buy new appliances. Only use appliances for your restaurant that are specifically made for commercial purposes. That equipment will be well built and last for a while.
